Harriet Tubman: Armed and Dangerous

USA Today, Wednesday 7 June 2000

Baltimore—A 25-foot-high ceramic mural of a musket-toting
Harriet Tubman leading slaves to liberation on the
Underground Railroad has upset the group that had planned to
display it. Associated Black Charities Inc. says the piece
could be construed as racist and violent. The group asked
artist Mike Alewitz to replace the musket with a staff, but
he refused. Tubman, a Maryland native, is the subject of
five Alewitz murals to be installed throughout the state
this summer.

I Will Not Disarm Harriet Tubman

By Jamie Stiehm, Baltimore Sun, 6 June 2000

Dispute: Officials of Associated Black Charities Inc., the
organization for which the mural is intended, have asked the
artist to replace Harriet Tubman's musket with a staff.

An artist refused yesterday to alter his government-funded
mural as he prepared to meet with members of Associated
Black Charities Inc., who balked at putting it on their
building because they believe it paints a racially loaded
portrait of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.
Strong emotions were apparent last night over the
25-foot-high ceramic Mural planned for display this month at
Associated's headquarters at Cathedral And Chase streets.
The work portrays Tubman with a musket, leading slaves to
freedom through a symbolic, parting Red Sea. The images of
whites in the work - they are being tossed into the sea from
either a slave ship or a factory - and Tubman handling a
musket set people off, even before a gathering to discuss
the mural last night at the McKim Center, a former Quaker
meeting house on Aisquith Street.

The mural creates a powerful image, but one that could be
construed as racist and condoning violence, say charity
directors. It is not something to display on an outside wall
at a time when guns are too often linked with violence in
the black community, charity officials say.

Associated leaders have urged artist Mike Alewitz - chosen
in a national competition sponsored jointly by the White
House Millennium Council and the National Endowment for the
Arts - to substitute a peaceful staff for the musket.

Alewitz likens this to censorship: "I will not disarm
Harriet Tubman. I won't take [the musket] out of her hands,"
he said in a telephone interview before the meeting.

The 25-by-123-foot mural is designed to be in public view.
It has raised questions about historical truth vs.
contemporary perceptions, issues that separate whites and
blacks. Some tried to bridge that gulf at last night's
meeting.

The community coordinator of the statewide Harriet Tubman
mural project defended the artist's choice. "[Tubman] did
not lead a revolution with a feather," said Blaise DePaolo.

A Maryland native who led slaves to freedom, Tubman is the
subject of Five murals to be installed throughout the state
this summer, one in her birthplace, Cambridge.

Through a national Millennial Treasures campaign launched by
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Baltimore Clayworks won a $25,000
grant to develop the Harriet Tubman motif. The Mount
Washington ceramics center chose Alewitz, who Lives in New
Jersey, from a national pool of hundreds of artists. He
designed All five murals.

The others are set for display at Magnolia Middle School in
Harford County, a park in Hyattsville in Prince George's
County and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore.

If the Associated refuses to take the mural as Alewitz
conceived it, Baltimore Clayworks will find another site for
it in the city, said Deborah Bedwell, the executive
director.

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